Methods and systems for collaboration between two robotic vehicle systems to accurately determine a geometric model of the footprint of a loaded robotic vehicle are described herein. A scanning robot is employed to scan a robotic vehicle loaded with a payload. The scanning robot measures the geometric information required to determine a geometric model of the loaded robotic vehicle. The scanning robot traverses a trajectory around the payload robot, while one or more distance sensors repeatedly measure the distance between the scanning robot and the payload robot and one or more image capture devices repeatedly image the payload robot. A geometric model of it the footprint of the payload robot is generated based on the collected image and distance information. In some examples, virtual boundaries are defined around the payload robot based on the geometric model to navigate with obstacle avoidance.

A system includes a visual sensor provided in an industrial machine or in the vicinity thereof to acquire a plurality of image data, a calculation unit that calculates a contamination degree of a lens or a lens cover of the visual sensor on the basis of the image data acquired by the visual sensor, and a prediction unit that calculates information on a predicted cleaning timing to be performed in the future, of the lens or the lens cover on the basis of the calculated contamination degree of the lens or the lens cover.

A deburring apparatus including: a robot that uses a deburring tool to deburr an object supported by a support in a machine tool, a visual sensor, a relative movement mechanism for causing relative movement between the visual sensor and the object supported by the support; and a controller, wherein the controller is configured to conduct: an operation process that operates the relative movement mechanism based on a visual sensor relative movement program for controlling an operation of the relative movement mechanism so that a ridge of the object supported by the support is detected by the visual sensor during the relative movement; and a deburring operation program generation process which generates a deburring operation program by using the detected ridge obtained by the visual sensor when the relative movement mechanism is operated based on the visual sensor relative movement program.

The invention relates to a method for operating a processing apparatus and to a corresponding processing apparatus. Such a method and such an apparatus can be used in the field of furniture and components industry, for example for processing a plate-shaped workpiece made of wood, of a wood material, a wood-like material, of a composite material or a combination thereof.

A method and system are provided for controlling an industrial automation machine using non-contact (virtual) position encoding. The system and method can be used to determine the position of an object under assembly on a conveyor system without mechanical coupling to a line or drive mechanism of the line.

The invention relates to a method, comprising capturing an image of an object to be monitored at a first image capturing frequency by an image sensor of a machine vision system, transmitting said captured image data to an image data processing device and analyzing said received image data by said image data processing device, and wherein if the image data is detected to comprise a deviation, a trigger signal is transmitted for triggering an image sensor for reconfiguring it to capture an image burst and for transmitting the captured image burst data to said image data processing device for further analysis. The invention further relates to a machine vision system and a computer program product performing the method.

An image inspecting apparatus includes at least one image capturing part, a lighting part, a control part including a moving part, a searching part analyzing an image captured by the image capturing part under a first image capturing condition and searching for a defect candidate from an object under inspection, and a determining part. When the searching part finds the defect candidate from the object under inspection, the control part controls an image capturing condition such that a part where the defect candidate is found by the searching part is photographed under a second image capturing condition that is clearer than the first image capturing condition. The determining part analyzes an image captured by the image capturing part under the second image capturing condition and determines whether the defect of the object under inspection is present or absent.

An appliance and method for automated visual inspection of at least two items from different categories, on a production line, include automatically switching between an item profile of a first of the at least two items for inspection; and an item profile of a second of the at least two items for inspection, based on detection of the first item in an image of the production line.

A machine tool of the present invention includes: a visual sensor that takes an image of unworked workpiece; an unworked workpiece shape information storing unit that stores unworked workpiece shape information obtained by the visual sensor; a worked workpiece shape information storing unit in which worked workpiece shape information is stored; a burr information calculating unit that recognizes a burr by comparing the unworked workpiece shape information with the worked workpiece shape information; a burr determining unit that determines the burr based on conditions including at least one of the location and the direction of the burr in the workpiece; a working method judging unit that decides whether or not to perform burring with a tool of the machine tool based on the determination result concerning the burr; and a working path generating unit that generates a working path for removing the burr judged to be a burr on which burring is to be performed with the tool.

The invention relates to a method, comprising capturing an image of an object to be monitored at a first image capturing frequency by an image sensor of a machine vision system, transmitting said captured image data to an image data processing device and analysing said received image data by said image data processing device, and wherein if the image data is detected to comprise a deviation, a trigger signal is transmitted for triggering an image sensor for reconfiguring it to capture an image burst and for transmitting the captured image burst data to said image data processing device for further analysis. The invention further relates to a machine vision system and a computer program product performing the method.